Turning data into better public decisions
Data science is reshaping how we live, communicate and make decisions. Its applications are already transforming areas such as healthcare, education, financial services and security. For public policy, these developments create significant opportunities, but also important risks when technologies are applied without sufficient care.
Public institutions need to keep pace with these advances while ensuring that data-driven tools are used responsibly. This requires more than technical expertise alone. Effective applications depend on an understanding of policy, ethics and the social consequences of how data is collected, analysed and used.
At Technopolis Group, we help policymakers use data science to support evidence-based decision-making. Our Data Science Unit brings together expertise from economics, psychology, management science, astrophysics, engineering and computer science, combining technical knowledge with an understanding of public policy.
Our approach
We do not believe that the most sophisticated solution is always the most useful one. In policymaking, tools need to be understandable, dependable and suited to the decisions they are intended to support.
Our approach combines innovation, ethical consideration and human-centred design. We develop solutions that are:
- Robust and reliable, with methods appropriate to the policy question.
- Transparent and explainable, so users can understand how findings are produced.
- Human-centred, with professional judgement remaining central to the process.
- Actionable for policy, turning analysis into insights that can inform decisions.
What we do
Our work covers both emerging and established areas of data science. Current priorities include the responsible use of generative AI in public policy, causal artificial intelligence and the development of real-time policy indicators.
We also work across machine learning, web scraping, dashboards, web applications and database management. These capabilities allow us to collect, analyse and present information in ways that respond to practical policy needs.
Making data work for policy
The purpose of data science is not simply to produce more data or more complex tools. It is to help policymakers understand problems more clearly and make better-informed decisions.
By combining technical expertise with policy knowledge, we turn complex information into clear and usable insight while keeping transparency, responsibility and human judgement at the centre of the process.
Two internal tools
The team developed two general-purpose internal products: the Technopolis AI Policy Concierge (AIPC) and the Science & Technology (S&T) Data Ocean.
The AIPC is our internal platform for deploying accountable generative AI on a large scale and tuned for policy insights. It enables our colleagues and clients to speak to project data and drive policy insights at unprecedented scale and speed. The platform takes data security, privacy and territorial data-jurisdiction requirements by design, promotes the generation of explainable outcomes and enables human-on-the-loop cross-validation processes.
The S&T Data Ocean is an internal architecture of linked data enabling our consultants to assess the scientific, economic and social impact of science and technology. The system links 10+ large data sources enriched by multiple web-scraped data and a mix of conventional and unconventional quantitative indicators based on text and generative AI.
For more information, please reach out to Diogo Machado, Head of the Data Science Unit.
Who we work for and with
The DSU main clients include the European Commission (e.g. DG RTD, DG Grow, DG Regio, DG Sante and DG CNECT), European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST), UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Dutch Research Council (NWO) and Medical Council (Zonmw), Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Research Council of Norway (RCN), Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and the French Ministry of Culture (Ministère de la culture).
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